Februabt 13, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



243 



than within that of the federal government. 

 Both of them are concerned chiefly with the 

 spread of information rather than with ad- 

 ministrative control. Both came into being 

 with the great advance of nationalism in 

 the decade of the Civil War. The Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture was established as an 

 independent department in 1862, with a 

 commissioner at its head, and without rep- 

 resentation in the cabinet. After making 

 its way against great difficulties for many 

 years, it became a fully organized depart- 

 ment of the government in 1889, its head 

 becoming a member of the President's cabi- 

 net. The Bureau of Education, on the 

 other hand, first organized as an indepen- 

 dent department, without cabinet represen- 

 tation, in the year 1867, was transformed 

 into a bureau of the Department of the In- 

 terior in 1869, and that has been its status 

 down to the present time. The movement 

 of congressional appropriations for these 

 two offices is shown side by side, at ten-year 

 intervals, in the following table : 



Department of 

 Agriculture 



1870 156,440 



1880 201,000 



1890 1,669,770 



1900 3,726,022 



1910 12,995,274 



Bureau of Education 

 (Including after 1880 

 the Alaska Service) 



5,400 

 26,995 

 104,920 

 116,270 

 284,200 



Three years later the annual appropria- 

 "tion for the Department of Agriculture 

 had advanced to $22,894,590. 



It may not be altogether fanciful to sug- 

 gest that one reason why Congress is re- 

 luctant to enter upon any considerable in- 

 crease of appropriations for the education 

 ofSce is a fear of the breaking loose of 

 another avalanche of expenditure like that 

 for the agricultural department. However, 

 when one looks upon the great contribution 

 which that department has made to our 

 national prestige and prosperity, it will 



be seen that this is a consideration which 

 may cut both ways. 



For my own part, I have no doubt that 

 when we get any clear vision of the mean- 

 ing of science and education and the arts 

 in our national life, we shall have liberal 

 appropriations for these objects from the 

 federal government ; and that any interpre- 

 tation of the limitations upon the federal 

 government which would stand in the way 

 of such appropriations, will then be re- 

 garded as fanciful and "academic." 



No one can foretell how that vision will 

 come to the American people. It is, in fact, 

 slowly dawning at the present time. But 

 its coming must be accelerated, or we shall 

 have long to wait. One thing that may be 

 expected to quicken our national insight in 

 this regard is the growing pressure of in- 

 ternational competition, especially in the 

 field of commerce and industry. The open- 

 ing of the Panama Canal will open the eyes 

 of the American people in unexpected 

 ways. Then, too, the political movement 

 toward democracy and more democracy, as 

 represented by direct primaries and other 

 new forms of governmental apparatus, is 

 making a nation-wide demand for height- 

 ened efficiency in our educational systems. 

 Not long ago, this last-mentioned view was 

 presented with great clearness by Senator 

 Burnham, of New Hampshire. There are 

 other tendencies of our time which are 

 carrying us surely in the same direction. 

 Our country simply can not make itself 

 what it would be, both at home and abroad, 

 without more of national emphasis upon 

 the education of the whole people, and 

 upon that advance of science and the arts 

 on which both modern education and 

 modem government depend. 



Ill 



In this paper I have drawn freely upon 

 my own recollections, simply as straws in- 



